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Re-introducing ourselves is a great idea. I guess I should write this for people who might just be joining and have not already read my previous posts!

I love history and historical fiction -- it's all I read, excepting recent research in the areas of relationships and sexual dysfunction. My husband and I are heavily involved in lay marriage counseling, mostly for Muslim couples. (No, I'm not Muslim, altho renaissance Islam and the Qur'an is a specialty of mine. I'm a raised-atheist-turned-Jesus-follower.) In my previous working life, I bred and trained llamas, took groups out on wilderness trips, ran a transition home for abused women and children, and designed houses. Somewhere in there I wrote a lot of grant applications. Still do. Gives me lots of practice blending fiction and fact with wishful thinking.

I have a large network of friends/family of many different faiths in undeveloped countries working with the poorest of the poor, which really helps me understand pre-industrial revolution realities. My current passion is stopping human trafficking and the global child sex trade. This tends to affect my opinion on what I read.

Last edited by MLE (Emily Cotton) on Tue August 26th, 2008, 4:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I saw llamas yesterday in New Jersey and I immediately thought of you. My husband and I were returning home from a day trip to Atlantic City. We always take the back roads because they are more interesting. In a small town in the Pine Barrens, we saw a group of fenced-in llamas. Obviously someone else is breeding llamas!

"Susan" wrote:I saw llamas yesterday in New Jersey and I immediately thought of you. My husband and I were returning home from a day trip to Atlantic City. We always take the back roads because they are more interesting. In a small town in the Pine Barrens, we saw a group of fenced-in llamas. Obviously someone else is breeding llamas!

You ain't kidding! When we started back in '81, there were fewer than 7K llamas total in the US and Canada. In '86, when the tax shelter laws for horses were changed, about 30 million bucks came chasing maybe 15K llamas. for a decade there, they were breeding any female who had a leg at each corner (and some thre-legged ones as well!)

Now the registry estimates there are over 300K llamas, so the time has come to launch a YA HF book set in pre-Columbian Peru aimed squarely at the 50K or more llama and alpaca owners on my mailing list. I've been collecting my most hilarious training and trail vignettes to put in it for years.

"MLE" wrote:You ain't kidding! When we started back in '81, there were fewer than 7K llamas total in the US and Canada. In '86, when the tax shelter laws for horses were changed, about 30 million bucks came chasing maybe 15K llamas. for a decade there, they were breeding any female who had a leg at each corner (and some thre-legged ones as well!)

Now the registry estimates there are over 300K llamas, so the time has come to launch a YA HF book set in pre-Columbian Peru aimed squarely at the 50K or more llama and alpaca owners on my mailing list. I've been collecting my most hilarious training and trail vignettes to put in it for years.

Interesting! I wish I had my camera with me. I would have stopped by the side of the road and taken a photo.